'Shovel-ready' projects gave Illinois a boost

April 19, 2009

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that Illinois may have benefited in winning quick approval for so many transportation projects in the federal stimulus program because of the state's long dysfunctional government under ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

LaHood, a former 14-year congressman from Peoria, was the first Republican that Obama, a former U.S. senator from Illinois, selected to his White House Cabinet. He told WGN-AM (720) "there is no favoritism" involved in the distribution of federal dollars, but instead said it was based on a long-standing formula for allocating highway dollars to the states.

Illinois ranks No. 1 among the dollar-value of road and bridge projects receiving federal approval under the stimulus measure, federal and state officials have said. More than $600 million in funding has been approved for nearly 250 projects that Illinois officials say could generate 9,000 jobs.

LaHood acknowledged that the fighting between Blagojevich and lawmakers that prevented a public works plan from being approved during the ousted governor's tenure left many projects meeting the federal government's "shovel ready" requirement. Lawmakers distrusted Blagojevich's ability to fairly approve and distribute projects during his six years as governor.

"These projects have been sitting on a shelf, ready to go because the state could never pass a capital budget," LaHood said, adding other states also had long-standing delays in approving public works funding measures. He noted that transportation engineers who drafted plans for road and bridge projects also expressed a "great deal of frustration" along with Illinois legislators.

"We sort of settled that for them by providing this stimulus money to projects that will be distributed all over the state," he said. LaHood credited Blagojevich's successor, Gov. Pat Quinn and Quinn's transportation secretary, former Downstate Democratic Rep. Gary Hannig, for moving quickly to secure funding.

LaHood also touted expectations for Illinois' role in $8 billion of federal stimulus funds being earmarked nationally for high-speed rail development in selected corridors across the nation, particularly with Chicago serving as a proposed rail hub for routes to Milwaukee, St. Louis and Detroit.

Looking at the possibility of developing trains moving in excess of 200 mph, LaHood compared the creation of high-speed rail networks to the construction of the interstate highway network launched by the Eisenhower administration.